World No. 3 Zverev Exits Wimbledon In Another Massive Upset After 5-Hour Fight

Alexander Zverev certainly wanted to stay in London at least for a week, but his journey at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships ended already in the first round.

Zverev was drawn into the bottom part of the men's draw, and for him, that meant playing his first match already on Monday. The German's match against Arthur Rinderknech was put as the last match on the Centre Court, but already when the match started on Monday, it was clear that it likely wouldn't finish on the same day.

Both players had their chances to break in the opening set. Rinderknech had two break points in the opening game, but he didn't use those. Then, throughout the set, Zverev had a total of five break points, but he also left those chances unused.

That meant a tie-break had to decide the opening set of the match, and it was the underdog who was able to make the first step towards an upset, winning the tie-break 7-3.

Rinderknech was clearly inspired by winning that first set. He played well in the second set, and up 5-4, he even created a set point chance to lead 2-0. But Zverev saved it and forced another tie-break.

Even in the tie-break, Rinderknech led 6-5 and then 7-6, having two more chances to lead 2-0 in the match, but he lost the last three points of the set, as Zverev snatched the tie-break from him, winning it 10-8.

The match was postponed due to curfew, which starts at 11 p.m. local time, and the players returned onto the Centre Court on Tuesday afternoon after the women's defending champion, Barbora Krejcikova, beat Alexandra Eala in her opening match.

Probably the biggest question upon the resumption of the match was whether Rinderknech would be able to keep up also on a different day in different conditions, and he provided an answer already in the first game, having two chances to break his opponent's serve.

But like in the opening set, the Frenchman couldn't use those chances. This time, however, he was able to break later in the set, and not once, but twice, winning the third set 6-3 to come even closer to an upset.

Rinderknech continued playing well in the fourth set as well. He had three chances to break the ATP World No. 3's serve, but after failing to use those in the second game, his opponent took over.

Zverev had a total of four break points in the fourth set, but even that wasn't enough for him to break. Another tie-break had to decide, and after mini-breaking his opponent's serve once, Rinderknech was two points away from winning the match at 5-3.

For a moment, his dream of beating a Top 3-ranked player on the Centre Court disappeared, as Zverev won four points in a row to win the fourth-set tie-break 7-5, forcing the fifth-set decider.

But Rinderknech was a man on a mission. He broke Zverev's serve early in the fifth set and held his serve throughout the set to win the match 7-6(3), 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4. Zverev was already the second third-seeded player eliminated on Tuesday after Jessica Pegula also lost her match.